Tuesday, April 16, 2013

I noticed that a gruesome photo is making the
rounds in my Facebook news feed - it shows one of the mangled competitors in
the Boston Marathon after the
bombs went off. His leg is gone from the knee down but there is a long portion
of bone still attached and jutting out where his leg used to be. The same thing
happened when, Kevin Ware, a Louisville
basketball player, broke his leg during a tournament game recently. There were photos everywhere showing the bone sticking out about 6" from his flesh.
These types of explicit photos were/are shown ad nauseam while we are held as a
captive audience. These images simply can't be avoided if we persist in our day
to day activity on social media.

When something like this – or 9-11 – happens there
is a preoccupation with viewing it over and over again. There are constant
counts and recounts of - deaths, injuries, spectators, shrapnel, and
every other type of tally. It’s as if hearing the minutia of the event will
somehow fix the gravity of the situation in our minds. Since we are consumers
of the 24-hour news cycle - like a train wreck - we seem to be unable to look
away. And so the media shows the same video clips over and over again, others post and we stare at countless pictures. And we somehow try to take in the horror of the
current event du jour.

While the sports injury in Louisville was an
unfortunate accident, in Boston the carnage was the result of an act of willful
terror. Of course our hearts go out to all victims but, when we are forced to
ponder the inhumanity that allows such a willfully depraved act, we see the
frightening proof of evil. We are left to wonder how such an act could have
been perpetrated by a fellow human being. What motivates such willful
destruction? What can be done about it? Where do we go from here? The questions
are as numerous as the injuries and the people affected by them.

And yet…

When we attempt
to expose the grisly horror that is abortion we are called 'over the top'. Facebook
censors our fan pages and walls. The pro-abortion crowd vehemently denounces
our efforts. We are accused of forcing unwilling spectators to see something so
unspeakably evil that it simply can’t be viewed. There, too, are counts and
pictures and carnage and blood and severed limbs. In addition, there are ‘trophies’ - babies in freezers, parts in jars. For its part, the media stages a blackout and ignores what's going on in the squalid rooms of abortion mills. And yet the pro-life faithful don’t have to daily peruse the grim reality of
a Kermit Gosnell to know that abortion is an act of terror of the highest degree
in every.single.instance.

All of the components for news reporting are
there: countless victims, cold-blooded perpetrators, and an act so unspeakably
violent that we recoil in sheer horror at the enormity of it all. Yet, it goes
largely unreported and therefore neatly tucked away in the darkness of the
unspeakable. And there it thrives – because no one has to face the ugliness.
Pro-life efforts to shine the light of truth on abortion are shoved into a
corner where very few will see, ponder, and rise up to ask the same questions
they do when any othere act of terror happens. How can such an act be perpetuated by
fellow human beings? What motivates such willful destruction? What can be done
about it? Where do we go from here? Here, too, the questions are as numerous as
the deaths, injuries, and the people affected by them.

With the spotlight finally on an individual who committed such heinous acts, perhaps we will move into a position where the
answers will come. The hand of the media has been forced by those of us who
rose up and demanded coverage of the Gosnell trial via social media - Pro-Lifers flooded Twitter With 100s of #Gosnell Tweets per second last Friday. More such efforts
are currently in the works so perhaps we will finally fill those empty media seats at the Gosnell trial. Now that we have gained momentum, we must forge
ahead in exposing abortion as the child murder it is. Maybe we will bring these dark, sinister acts
into the light for all to see. And once we are all forced to face what happens
at the hands of monsters like Gosnell, maybe we will be able to find a way to
end the violence of abortion – for the good of the victims and for the good of our
society. Find me on Twitter - @tigribj and retweet:

Designs by Birgit

Birgit Jones is a 50-something cradle Catholic who is passionate about the Church and the prolife movement. A graduate of Brescia University, she has employed her Bachelor of Art degree in pursuits ranging from Executive Director of Right to Life groups to Field Representative to Congressman Ron Lewis (R-KY).

She has been married to her Catholic convert husband, Rick, for 40 years. They have four children and eight living grandchildren (all age eleven and under). Their frequent visits eliminate any fear of an empty nest!

Birgit can also be found on her personal blog Designs By Birgit and Facebook fan page Designs By Birgit, where she utilizes her advertising and public relations experience to promote Life through her pro-life memes.